Judge Frederic Block, decision to let mobsters' lawyers inspect secret recording device

Judge Frederic Block

Bowing to intense pressure from federal officials, a Brooklyn judge has reconsidered his decision to allow lawyers for two mobsters to inspect a secret recording device worn by a snitch.

“This is becoming a little bit of a hornets’ nest," Judge Frederic Block said Friday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

“I didn't think there was any problem with it...It seemed like a no-brainer.”

That was before federal prosecutors and top officials from the FBI's New York office beat a path to his courthouse chambers this week.

Block was told in no uncertain terms that allowing outsiders to examine the guts of a device used in undercover investigations could endanger lives of informants and the integrity of future cases.

Lawyers for reputed Colombo consigliere Thomas Farese and associate Pat Truglia had sought to inspect the device worn by ex-gangster Reynold Maragni, who claims it malfunctioned at times or was accidentally turned off occasionally while secretly taping mob targets.

The defense plans to argue that Maragni deliberately turned off the device to commit crimes without the government's knowledge, and fabricated incriminating facts about conversations that were not recorded.

Prosecutors have not disclosed what kind of recording device it was, but Maragni testified at a previous trial that it was a wristwatch and a key chain holder.

Block said there will be no inspection for now and instructed the defense lawyers to write up a list of questions for the government to answer about how the device is turned on and off, and its power source.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes conceded that not even an expert on listening bugs could determine whether Maragni was turning it off deliberately or by accident.

"The only way to know for sure is to get in the head of the cooperator that day," she said.

By John Marzulli / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS